One banana, two bananas, three bananas! More! Four bananas make a bunch and so do many more! Making a Soft Toy is like that. Take it one step or ‘banana’ at a time and you will get a whole ‘bunch’ done!

Category Archives: Inspirational Ideas

Reorganising your Creative Space to make it more practical and user friendly can be challenging especially when you have a limited budget. If you have a Sewing or Craft Room that needs some rearranging this series of Before and After photos might prove helpful and provide the necessary incentive to give your Room a Make Over!

Do you have a creative space that looks like the site of a huge explosion of the ‘creative’ variety? I know I do & sometimes it is difficult to keep the “Organised Chaos” tidy enough to work in so I keep my eyes ‘peeled’ for ways to make it better! My creative space is realistically called “The CraftyMess Room” though my husband loves to tease me by referring to it by the alternative name of “The Messy Craft Room”.

Is it possible to have an inexpensive “honest working craft room” that looks good or do we all have to aim for the ‘high price tag’ glamorous work spaces perpetuated by the glossy magazines? Is it possible for a creative person who also happens to be “Just Bananas Over Soft Toys” to live, hope, dream and create in such a place without going totally crazy trying to keep it in order?

Being “Just Bananas” is more a state of ‘being’ than a ‘name’ for a hobby/business!

If you were following the 5 Day Art Challenge that I participated in during January 2015 via Facebook you would have had the opportunity to see some of the images that I have included on my Permanent Blog Pages Youth Hobbies. All of these artistic endeavours had a certain amount of satisfaction attached to them but on their own individually they weren’t enough to keep my attention.

Here’s a quick recap of the images I chose for the Challenge.

Remember more information and other examples of my artistic endeavours are included in the Permanent Blog Pages….just click the red text to follow the links.

The beginning of my interest in making Soft Toys was visually portrayed on Day 5 of the Art Challenge… Reading two horse books written by Monica Edwards “Wish for a Pony” and “The Midnight Horse” were the starting point. “Wish for a Pony” inspired me to draw horses and “The Midnight Horse” inspired me to create horses using fabric and other materials (see Toy Making).

Day 5 of the Art Challenge:

I feel like I am “Just Bananas” because I am so passionate & borderline ‘crazy’ (i.e. bananas = crazy) about designing Soft Toys. I love to look at fabric creations and try to figure out how they are made & how to apply the techniques or methods to what I am aiming to create. I strive to learn and improve all the time. When making Soft Toys I aim for realism and prefer to refer to real live living creatures or good photos whenever possible.

I enjoy the design process, the drawing & cutting out of paper & fabric shapes. Sometimes I find the sewing a little tedious because I am such a perfectionist it can take many, many attempts and tiny revisions to get the shape just right! I am currently learning a digital drawing program & enjoying using it to make my Pattern shapes neat. Plus it is always fun to work with photos and create what I hope are clear step by step instructions. Then there is a new creative outlet that combines even more of the artistic skills that I gained as I grew up, namely Custom Fabric Design made possible by Spoonflower.com which is a dream come true! Perfect for all those occasions where I can’t find just the right fabric! If only I had more time I have so many ideas!

But that is not the full explanation as to ‘why’ I am “Just Bananas Over Soft Toys”… it’s not just about “me” being able to create the things I do it is about encouraging & supporting other people (e.g. other toymakers & designers) and about enabling others to create also (e.g. by creating Sewing Pattern PDFs).

When I heard about the Sewmamasew 6 weeks of Softies Competition I spent a lot of time thinking about whether to enter or not. I was keen to see all the fabric creations and hoped to see people who needed a little confidence boost or encouragement by way of positive feedback or winning a prize benefit from the participation. I felt the need to continue to work on my current PDF and wondered if I could spare the time to sew something(s) to enter.

My main motivation for entering is not based on a desire to win a prize. Even though I have been designing and making Soft Toys (off and on) since I was 12 years old I have only had an Online Internet presence for just over a year (Etsy & Craftsy shops, Facebook Page, Spoonflower shop and this WordPress Blog). By participating in the competition I hope to show a wider audience what I make. The best ‘prize’ I could ever receive would be to fuel and assist other people’s creativity!

Designing Soft Toys is my (almost all consuming) passion! Why have I pursued Toy designing instead of drawing, painting or ceramics? The main reason is repeatability…..

I could show you my drawings or paintings & provide you with some art supplies but would that empower you to recreate the images that I have created?

I could give you some clay and show you techniques and guide your hands but could you replicate what I have made?

I could create realistic Textile Art animals and birds etc using a freehand/organic non repeatable method but that doesn’t enable anyone else does it? However “if” I create a design for a Soft Toy and turn that into a PDF and/or Custom Fabric design I can take things one step further. This is where repeatability is the ‘star’.

My aim is to give others the potential to achieve a close if not identical result as I have. As soon as a Soft Toy has been successfully created by someone who purchases a PDF then the imagination and creativity of the maker can be added to the base I have provided. I am longing to see the starting point I can provide become a unique and personal expression of someone else’s creativity.

Does it make sense now? Now do you understand why I say I am “Just Bananas Over Soft Toys”?